Clouds gather over Bondi stadium

BY MARINA CARMAN

SYDNEY -- “Gladiator winds may take out the Bondi Colosseum before construction is even finished”, Waverley City indigenous councillor and Bondi Olympic Watch member Dominic Kanak has claimed.

The huge Olympics volleyball stadium, being built on Bondi Beach here, faces considerable construction problems. High winds blew large metal seats around the stadium on June 28, stopping all work on the site. King tides have also lashed the fencing around the construction, adding to concern about workers' and public safety.

Kanak told Green Left Weekly that an appeal against the development consent for the stadium failed in late June because of new state legislation supported by Labor and the Coalition. The legislation, the Olympic Arrangements Act 2000, amends the Crown Lands Act, overriding objections to the stadium on the grounds of native title and public ownership. The development is occurring on crown land which has been dedicated to public recreation since 1938.

Doubts have also been raised about the process by which the stadium was tendered. A Swiss-based company, Nussli Special Events, headquartered in Lausanne, the same town in which the International Olympics Committee is based, was awarded the stadium construction contract in June 1999. Calls for public input were not made until August and approval was granted by NSW planning minister Andrew Refshauge in October.

Further claims that behind-the-scenes deals were brokered by Dick Ebersol, the sports broadcasting executive of US television giant NBC, to ensure the stadium was cited on Bondi Beach “have been scrutinised by overseas journalists but are not getting coverage here”, Kanak says.

“This is not the `green Olympics' or the `people's Olympics'. It is the `done deal corporate Olympics'”, he concluded.

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